Woman With A Rare Disease Reveals How Makeup Boosts Her Confidence

"It gives me the confidence to be myself."

Makeup is a powerful tool that can be used to transform and to unleash people's creativity. For Emily Jones, it is helping her gain confidence.

The 22-year-old has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (type 3), a disease caused by faults in certain genes that make connective tissue weaker. There are various types of the disease and some symptoms include skin that can bruise easily, fatigue, bladder issues, and complications with internal organs.

She explained to Allure that makeup has made her more confident since she began watching makeup tutorials when she was 19. "I was instantly curious about how it would make me feel as I'm a very shy person." she told the publication. "Wearing it made me feel happy."

The budding makeup artist adapted the beauty looks she saw in the videos to make sure they wouldn't interfere with her feeding tube.

"I'm so grateful for the skills [the tutorials] taught me and for them making me believe in me and my makeup application abilities."

She now describes herself as an "aspiring makeup artist" and currently posts her beauty looks on Instagram under the @beautybyemilylou handle. Jones currently has over 17.5K followers despite only posting just over 100 photos.

She said, "Makeup means everything to me it gives me the confidence to be myself without the judgment of others."